Searching Far and Wide - 36 (Patreon)

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Route 4 IV

There was a shine in Pierce’s eyes as he watched Cygnus and Gem practice with the primeape and a few mankeys. However, it was nothing to the little sparkle that he could see in front of the abra’s fist when he sent it forward. It was nothing, almost unnoticeable, a sparkle that you might miss if you blinked. It was still a very solid, very important progress marker though.

Focus Punch was on the way to being in Cygnus’ repertoire, which would be great, because so far the psychic type had had no attacking moves to work with. No moves whatsoever, really, if one didn’t count Teleport. Now though, once he got the hang of that attack, maybe he could even join spars and battles.

Sure, he wouldn’t be the most effective battler in the world, especially since Focus Punch had the major drawback of needing preparation time, but Pierce had some ideas to try and make it work. Besides that, Cygnus didn’t really need to win the fights, but being able to participate at all would be a great step. Neither trainer nor pokemon could wait to get to that.

‘Great job, buddy,’ he congratulated the abra in his mind, feeling Cygnus’ gratitude brush against his mind. He was growing used to that, as time passed, and Pierce was starting to wonder if that meant anything in regards to psychic arts. He doubted it, but maybe that would make things easier for Cygnus, if nothing else. That would be nice, he supposed.

He got a sort of confirmation from the psychic type at that moment, but it seemed a little unsure.

Still, Pierce would take that.

On other fronts… Well, there was Gem, who was doing better than Cygnus on Focus Punch training, if only marginally so. That made sense though, even if it frustrated Pierce’s pokemon to no end. The geodude was much more physically developed than he was, so it stood to reason that she’d pick up the fighting move much easier than he did. If anything, he was doing surprisingly well for himself, even if Cygnus didn’t agree on that front.

Before he could look away to check on the rest of his team though, Pierce saw Papa Primeape grunt and nod, getting the attention of his dutiful students. Then there was more grunt and snort speech going on and he saw both Cygnus and Gem being taken aback. For the life of him though, Pierce couldn’t quite piece together what the pokemon was saying.

“Something going on?” Lily asked from behind him, obviously having noticed that something was different from the usual. They’d both been taking turns checking on their pokemon’s training with the primeape, rotating so that they could watch it and also their other member’s training too. As she came to stand beside him, he shrugged.

“Cygnus was starting to show progress too,” he informed her, since Gem had started during her own turn to check, funnily enough. “Then he made them stop and started giving a speech,” he added, watching as the primeape said something else.

That was when the fighting type father turned towards them. Beside him, Pierce saw Lily tense up from the corner of his eyes. He understood why, of course. His traveling companion was still a little on edge with the pokemon, even after almost a week of traveling and spending time with them. As far as Lily was concerned, any pokemon that wasn’t with a trainer that she knew and trusted was a pokemon that could attack at a moment’s notice.

He understood that, of course, and it wasn’t a bad mindset to have. The problem was that pokemon noticed that kind of thing. Some wouldn’t care, but some might be on edge just because she was on edge. So… Well, it wasn’t like he could help her more than he was already trying to. He’d just have to be the calm one for the moment.

“Anything we should know?” he asked the primeape, more of a request than a demand, obviously. He made sure that his smile was soft, non-threatening. Primeape and mankey could take literally anything as a challenge or a reason to be annoyed. It was better to be very careful in how one expressed themselves with them. Or so he’d learned by reading and spending time with the fighting types, at least.

Papa Primeape nodded then, letting out a loud grunt that had the mankeys all around gather with him. As both Pierce and Lily noticed this, the older fighting type snorted and then signaled off to the side. It was then that he understood. Hee was being rather blunt, but he guessed that made sense.

“Well, I guess you stuck around more than we thought you would, actually,” he commented, and next to him Lily let out an “oh” of realization as the pieces fell together in her mind. “Thank you for all the help,” he added, getting a grunt and a shake of his head in response. “Try to keep the young ones out of trouble, yeah? Or, at least, trouble that they can’t actually fight.”

Papa Primeape snorted then, even as the rest of his little group looked very offended by his words. The older fighting type had to bonk one of the youngest mankeys before they could do anything, shaking his head at Pierce. He just grinned at them before running his fingers through his hair.

“So, that’s it, huh? Well… Take care of yourselves,” he told them, his smile turning a little softer, a little more sad. It always sucked to have to say goodbye, but he guessed he had to get used to that part of… Well, traveling all the time. “I won’t be around to heal you anymore, yeah?”

He got a series of grunts and snorts from the gathering of fighting types. By that point, Pierce’s and Lily’s teams had already gathered around, with Cygnus teleporting on his trainer’s shoulders. The pokemon talked among themselves, likely saying their own goodbyes.

“Try not to attack random trainers in the future, yeah?” Lily told them, visibility gathering her courage. “It might end badly if someone else other than us got involved,” she added, and when the mankeys went to protest, Papa Primeape bonked two of them, effectively silencing the lot of them.

“Maybe we’ll see you later, guys,” Pierce told them, giving them a wave. They replied with some of their own, or a nod in Papa Primeape’s case, before they made their way deeper into the forest. “Well, that happened,” he commented once they disappeared between the branches. “Guess he was waiting for us both to get actual progress with his training.”

“I guess,” Lily said, looking to where the pokemon had gone. “Still, that was…”

“Abrupt. Blunt, just like them,” Pierce finished for her.

“Yeah. Yeah, you are right.”

[}-o-{]

“Getting there, buddy,” Pierce told Orion, sitting on a somewhat low tree branch, as he watched the onix train. He was really starting to get the turning ground to sand part of Sand Tomb. The movement and such of said sand was a little more out of his reach, but the stone serpent was getting there. Pierce had no doubt that he’d have made some good progress by the time they reached Cerulean.

Which was great, but also wasn’t quite a priority since Orion wouldn’t be doing much in that city, at least Gym wise. Maybe they could hit the battlegrounds though and earn some money. Not that they needed it, but his pokemon could use the distraction, he was sure. And the experience of battles that were a little more serious too, he supposed.

‘I just really can’t be all for battles like my team, I guess,’ Pierce mused with a grin.

“Keep it up, Orion. Do it slowly, so you can focus. There’s no need to rush things, I’ve told you,” he reminded his pokemon, getting a rumbling whine before the stone serpent continued working.

‘Cygnus,’ Pierce called, and the abra immediately teleported to his shoulders and then got the both of them to Narcissa. This was training for both of them, for the pokemon to get better at teleporting others. As for Pierce, well, this way, he could learn how to adapt to random teleports in case he needed that sort of skill in an emergency.

In this case, he barely caught himself from a sitting position to a standing position.

“A little higher would have been better,” he suggested to his psychic type, who quickly gave him an affirmative answer before teleporting back to where he'd been training. Adjusting himself and trying to shake off the awkward feeling of being teleported, Pierce took a deep breath in. They were both getting better with teleporting, he supposed, but it’d take a while still.

Getting his bearings, he looked forward to see Narcissa working on her Giga Drain with Root. One look at her was all he needed to know how well things were going, which is to say not at all. She was making progress though, just not as quickly as she wanted and there was only so much that Pierce could reassure her and try to calm her down.

As he heard her buzz angrily yet again, Pierce cleared his throat, catching both pokemon’s attention.

“Thanks for the help, Root,” he said, giving the grass type a smile. “I’ll make sure to make you the berry salad you like, yeah? Not even pokeblock, proper salad,” he told the pokemon, grinning wider as the bulbasaur’s red eyes lit up. “Could you give the two of us a moment though?”

Root quickly nodded before making his way towards where Lily was working with Star.

Once he was far enough, he gave Narcissa an unimpressed look which had the bug type turning away instantly. Neither said anything for a long moment before Pierce sighed. In response, the beedrill clicked her mandibles in what he assumed was her equivalent of a huff.

“Ok, I guess we are stopping the Giga Drain training for now. We can work on other things,” he decided. Narcissa immediately snapped her head towards him, clicking angrily and buzzing her wings for extra effect. He stood his ground, however. “You are getting frustrated and angry, and that’s just making it more difficult for you to learn. You are going to take a break and work on the moves you already got down and then you’ll go back to Giga Drain. Ok?”

It was, in fact, not ok.

Narcissa raged against that decision, making her opinion very clear for him. However, Pierce wasn’t having any of it. He’d seen her get worse and worse and there was no point in letting her keep bashing her head against that wall. Sure, she might break through eventually, but that didn’t mean it was ok for her to persist like that.

“I’m not changing my mind,” he declared the moment the beedrill gave him a second to speak. Apparently, Narcissa had finally decided that yes, he was serious, and realized that no, he actually wasn’t gonna change his mind. For one last attempt though, she tried to give him a pleading look. One that had him raising an eyebrow. That was definitely not something he expected. “You know, that’d work a lot better if I didn’t know you are really forcing it.”

To that, Narcissa “huffed” again.

“Come on, up in the air and practice Tungsten Strike for a while, ok? The move still needs work anyway,” he told the beedrill then, nodding as she took flight, floating in front of him. “After that, you can cycle through your other moves. Maybe work on Harden and Iron Defense while moving? Or at least being quicker.”

To that, she nodded and once she started working again, he sighed.

‘Am I doing ok?’ he wondered. He was winging it with the whole being a trainer thing, after all. He had no idea what he was doing, most of the time. Sure he’d been trying to learn as much as he could from Lily, both discreetly and overtly, but the girl had different pokemon from his. They were all different. He also wasn’t Lily, so what worked for her, might not work for him, or his pokemon.

‘Really hope I’m doing ok.’

[}-o-{]

Pierce stood across a “battlefield” – read, a clearing in the forest – from a trainer that looked pretty confident, all things considered. Off to the side, acting as referee were Lily, accompanied by a rattata that had stuck around for a day already, and his opponent’s traveling companions on the other side. As it was, Lily had already beaten one of the other trainers with Talon against an Oddish.

Pierce was pretty sure that grass type was gonna be facing Brock in Pewter… Or one of his siblings, at least.

Back to his own fight though, he thumbed Orion’s pokeball. This was a one on one, which meant that Narcissa was the best choice here. She was an all around better battler, no questions asked. However, Pierce wasn’t precisely short on cash, and that was without even considering whatever reward he’d gotten for the treatment of the pokemon in Mt. Moon.

On the other hand, letting his onix get some experience in pokemon battles was better, even if it lost him more battles.

“Release your pokemon,” Lily called and both of them let the devices in their hands open. On his side, Orion appeared, letting out a roar. On the other… ‘Oh you poor bastard,’ Pierce thought as a flaaffy appeared in front of his opponent. Judging by the grimace on the man’s face, he didn’t even have a good move to counter Orion. “Well, that’s unfortunate,” Lily couldn’t help but comment, making his opponent grimace even harder.

To the guy’s credit, he didn’t just give up.

“Growl, follow it up with Tackle,” he commanded his electric type. “Don’t let it get you.”

“Blast,” Pierce called and Orion got to it immediately, smacking his tail on the ground for a Rock Throw. “Strike if it gets close,” he added then, getting a growl in response from the onix. That sounded a good enough base plan, really. No way the other guy would have called for Tackle if he had something better to work with, but he did, so…

Pierce wasn’t familiar with what moves flaaffy could learn, but he was betting most of the natural ones were electric. It was a second stage pokemon, after all, so at that point the guy should have taught it some different typed moves already… Unless those took too long/needed tutors. Regardless, this worked in their favor, so Pierce certainly wasn’t complaining.

The battle from then on was… fast, let’s say.

Pierce could respect the other guy from not giving up until the end though. He seemed to be half decent at battling, from what he could see through the battle. It was just a shame that their chosen pokemon made the battle so… one sided.

“Oh, come on,” Pierce told Orion once the other group of travelers went away. “Don’t give me that. It wasn’t my fault,” he added, rolling his eyes at the rock type. “Pout if it's too easy, pout if you get your ass kicked. You really are a child, huh?” he asked, drawing a scandalized rumble from his pokemon. “You’ll get plenty of battles, Orion, don’t worry. Some will be easy, some will be hard, it’s how it goes. The important thing is that you learn something from all of them… and that you don’t let them get to you, the good or the bad.”

The onix rumbled something then and Pierce replied with a smile as he patted the side of the stone serpent’s head.

“Come on. Maybe we’ll get another battle on our way before stopping and then I’ll use the wipe on you before going to sleep, yeah?” That promise seemed to be enough to put Orion back in a good mood real quick. Lily, meanwhile, giggled behind her hand as Talon gave them an amused look from her shoulder. “Don’t give us that, mister. We’ll see how smug you are when we visit your family back outside Pallet.”

To that, the spearow seemed to change his expression about as quick as Orion did his mood.

“Now, back to the pokeball you go, big guy,” Pierce continued, waiting for his onix to give the ok before using the device. “What do you think, Cygnus? Time for Narcissa to get her time and a nap for you?” he asked then, receiving an affirmative from the psychic on his shoulder to which he quickly joined his rock type teammate in the stasis devices. “Girl!” Pierce called then, getting his beedrill to come back from wherever she’d been roaming around to avoid being annoyed at the fact that someone else was fighting instead of her.

She immediately latched onto his back when she noticed the spot was free of Cygnus.

“My team is full of children.”

“And you wouldn’t have them any other way,” Lily pointed out, to which he chuckled and nodded. “It’s kind of adorable, honestly,” she added, smiling fondly at them.

“Thanks,” he replied with a grin. Narcissa, however, didn’t appreciate being called “adorable” nearly as much, clicking her mandibles annoyedly. “Oh, relax, will you? I feel like my pokemon are getting less and less friendly by the day, honestly,” he mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“What about Cygnus?”

“I mean, he’s not bad, but he’s a bit… antisocial, if you will. Or so I’m starting to think, at least. All these pokemon want to do is battle,” Pierce answered, cracking his neck before nodding in the direction they’d been going towards before they were interrupted by the battles. “Let’s keep going, yeah? I sort-of promised Orion I’d try to get him another fight.”

“Sure,” Lily agreed. “And I guess your pokemon are just trying to balance out your laidback, pacifistic self.”

“That’s… one way of looking at it,” Pierce acknowledged.

[}-o-{]

As he did often, he found himself with a book in his hands, reading quietly as he let the sounds of nature be background noise. Back in his old life, he’d have needed headphones and music to tune out the outside, but in the middle of nowhere, there was little to really get distracted over once one got used to the sounds of wild pokemon, the wind on the tree branches and so on. It was its own kind of music, Pierce supposed.

Granted, now he had the pokegear and he could tune some radio station or another. There were some with music just as good as what he could have heard back home too, but he’d gotten used to things before already. He was fine as he was and besides, if he could avoid wasting battery, all the better. He knew he could have Lily’s charger no problem, the girl would even be happy to provide it, since she probably used the device more than he did, but still, it was the principle of the matter.

After some time, Pierce found that it was easy enough to focus on his texts, especially since he was actually invested. Reading through the books he’d gotten to prepare for the First Aid License had no business being as interesting as it was. Then again, maybe he’d expected a lot more “scientific medicine” than there actually was. Granted, it wasn’t simple by any means, but the problem was more about learning the very specific needs that some pokemon had in regards to care.

Every pokemon was different and most of them had this one little thing or another that one needed to know when treating injuries. Things like the charmander line’s tail flame thing. As it turned out, they didn’t immediately die if it went off, but they very well could if it was off too long. Interestingly, water types that were more… water dependent, like goldeen and such, could survive for quite a while outside of water, but not that long either.

Which Pierce was pretty sure wasn’t canon, at least from what he remembered.

‘Few things are in this world, at least from what I’m learning,’ he mused, continuing to read through the entries. He was trying to dedicate a good amount of time to water types, considering where they were going. Not only were they going near the sea for the foreseeable future, but they were going to be challenging the water type Gym too. On top of that, Pierce himself was interested in meeting some water types, since he’d met plenty of flying and grounded pokemon.

Also, he was pretty sure that he wanted to catch one of them too, if only for the sake of being practical. Having a pokemon that could swim well sounded like a good idea, especially considering that a decent chunk of the world was water. A flying type would have been on that list too, but Cygnus kind of covered that base too, if indirectly.

‘I’m getting distracted,’ Pierce thought, shaking his head and focusing on the book again. Still, regardless of what he wanted to do, he yawned tiredly. It was a little late, he supposed.

Idly, he looked around. His back rested on Orion’s curled up body, with the head of the onix lying to his side as an armrest. Cygnus, for his part, was laying on his side, having been reading together with Pierce until he couldn’t anymore. Then there was Narcissa, resting on top of Orion, as if overseeing their surroundings, guarding the entire team.

With a slight smile, he continued reading for a little longer. He could probably go for another hour before it really got too late. He didn’t want to cut his sleep too much, after all. That’d just mess him up and he needed to be at his best for training the day after, both his team’s and his own.

For the moment, he had a lot of material to get through too. It was a good thing that he’d decided to go through his training plans before studying though, since those were a lot more time sensitive. It didn’t matter if he had to delay his First Aid License test, since he could take that one more or less whenever, but being a trainer was his every day thing for the moment. That meant he had to give it his best.

His team deserved nothing else, after all.

Pierce might not be a fan of battles and he’d more or less avoid them if he could get away with it… But his team loved them. Narcissa wanted to prove to the world that she was more than just a bug. Orion wanted to grow stronger, so he’d never be defenseless again. Cygnus wanted to test his own limits, go where few if any had gone in the road to strength, experience new things. All of them connected with each other through battles and Pierce wasn’t gonna be the odd one out in his own team.

He might not be a fan, but for the sake of his new friends, the family he was building for himself… He’d do his best and he’d be damned if he let them down. That thought motivated him, it kept him going when he studied, it gave him energy when he was exercising, it drove him in his battles. Because he might not like battles, but something he did like was making his team happy.

And if they were happy battling, being strong and winning… Then Pierce would make sure that they won as much as he could make them win. Maybe there was an Ash Ketchum or Red out there in the world, or maybe there wasn’t. Maybe there were any number of such individuals walking around, and maybe it was arrogant of him, but if his team wanted to beat them too, then Pierce would give it his best shot.

They were all he had, so he’d give them his all.

It was the least he could do.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Some more traveling and training and interactions, as usual. I know it’s kind of repetitive of me to keep more or less doing the same things only slightly different but… That’s kind of how life works. You don’t become close with someone after a single interaction, for example, you become close to someone after a long time with them, so I want to show that time passage and characters being with each other and such.

I’m aware that it’s a terrible way to tell a story, but it’s what I like to do with mine. Although, to be honest, if you made it this far and you don’t like my way of telling stories… I don’t know what to tell you.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: I think I mentioned it a bunch of times that Pierce wants to get a water type. Any idea which one it could be?

See you.